Aino Kaisa Saarinen: I love this good energy here in this training camp

29 June 2012 12:20

AIno Kaisa Saarinen in Alaska -

FIS

A multiple world champion with three Olympic medals, Aino Kaisa Saarinen, 33, has been in Alaska for more than two weeks, staying with U.S. Ski Team member and World Cup sprint champion Kikkan Randall during the first part of camp in Anchorage. Before that, she trained in Italy.

With just a few days left on the glacier before heading back to Finland, she said the summer wasn’t about to slow down. On July 14, Saarinen will marry her longtime fiancé, Tom Gustafsson, a former Finnish national league basketball player, and then she’s off to another Italian training camp.

Volume is typically the goal during the second part of the Alaska camp, and Saarinen said it fit well with her fitness plan. “So far, I really love it,” she said. “There is a lot of snow and the track is in good condition, and we have had good training sessions here.”

Aino Kaisa Saarinen has been training with the group, which includes top Americans like Randall, Liz Stephen and Jessie Diggins, and Canadians Chandra Crawford, Dasha Gaiazova and Perianne Jones.

“I came here because I wanted to have something new and see some new places,” she said of her first time in Alaska. “When I came here [on June 12], we were training down on rollerskis and going hiking. The terrain was just great. The weather has just been great for us and everybody has been so nice to me. “I just love this good energy here in this training camp; I think I have gotten what I came here for,” she added. “It’s good energy and [a] new place, and good terrain for training, so I’m satisfied.”

This coming season, Saarinen said she wanted to win an individual medal at the 2013 World Championships in Val di Fiemme, Italy. A strong classic skier, she was looking forward to the 30 k, sprint and relay.